- Paramount mounts proxy fight against WBD amid takeover battle
Source: Axios
“After numerous bid rejections, Paramount Skydance is officially waging a proxy fight against Warner Bros. Discovery’s board. Paramount has refused to increase the price of its offer for WBD, arguing its bid is financially superior to Netflix’s. It’s now become clear that it believes its best path to winning WBD is through legal pressure. Paramount on Monday sent a letter to WBD shareholders saying it intends to nominate directors for WBD’s board and that it filed a lawsuit to force the company to disclose ‘basic information” about the bidding process to enable shareholders to “to make an informed decision as to whether to tender their shares into our offer.'” (01/12/26)
- Greenland: Regime rejects US takeover under “any circumstance”
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“The government of Greenland has firmly rejected threats from United States President Donald Trump, stating that it will not accept a US takeover under ‘any circumstance.’ The self-governed Danish territory also underscored its NATO membership in a statement on Monday, saying that the territory’s defence falls to the transatlantic alliance. … Trump has continued to insist that he will seize Greenland, threatening that the territory will be brought under US control ‘one way or another.’ Those threats have sparked outrage from European allies who have warned that any takeover of Greenland would have serious repercussions for ties between the US and Europe.” (01/12/26)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/1/12/greenland-rejects-us-takeover-under-any
- Vatican: Pope Leo meets with Machado
Source: San Diego Union-Tribune
“Pope Leo XIV met with Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado in a private audience at the Vatican on Monday, during which the Venezuelan leader asked him to intercede for the release of hundreds of political prisoners held in the Latin American country. The meeting, which hadn’t been previously included in the list of Leo’s planned appointments, was later listed by the Vatican in its daily bulletin, without adding details. Machado is touring Europe and the United States after she reemerged in December after 11 months in hiding to accept her Nobel Peace Prize in Norway. … Pope Leo has called for Venezuela to remain an independent country after U.S. forces [abducted] former President Nicolás Maduro in his compound in Caracas and took him to New York to face federal charges of drug-trafficking.” (01/12/26)
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2026/01/12/pope-meets-venezuela-opposition-machado/
- Ecuador: Five severed heads displayed on beach
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Bathers found five severed heads displayed on a beach in Ecuador in what appears to be a warning to gang members who have been threatening local fishermen. The gruesome discovery was made on Sunday on the beachfront in Puerto López, a town which has been wracked by gang violence. Next to the body parts, locals found a sign threatening those stealing from and extorting fishermen with the same fate. Ports and towns by the Pacific Ocean are among those worst hit by gangs which smuggle cocaine from Ecuador to the US and Europe. Police have identified the remains as those of five men who had been reported missing days earlier. They ranged between 20 and 34 years in age. Officials told local media one of them had a criminal record for gun possession. Their bodies have not yet been located.” (01/12/26)
- Tillis: DOJ “credibility” is “in question” over Powell investigation
Source: The Hill
“Republican Sen. Thom Tillis (N.C.), a senior member of the Senate Banking Committee, is questioning the ‘credibility’ of the Department of Justice’s investigation of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and threatening to oppose President Trump’s nominees to the central bank until the matter is resolved. ‘If there were any remaining doubt whether advisers within the Trump Administration are actively pushing to end the independence of the Federal Reserve, there should now be none. It is now the independence and credibility of the Department of Justice that are in question,’ Tillis said in a statement. He also vowed to keep Trump’s nominees to the Fed bottled up in the Banking Committee over the matter.” (01/12/26)
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5684255-thom-tillis-doj-jerome-powell
- US Bankruptcy Filings Increase 11% in Calendar Year 2025
Source: Yahoo! Finance
“Total bankruptcy filings in Calendar Year (CY) 2025 were 565,759, an eleven percent increase from the 508,953 registered during CY 2024, according to data provided by Epiq AACER, the leading provider of US bankruptcy filing data. While representing a substantial year-over-year increase, total bankruptcy filings remain lower than the pre-pandemic total of 757,816 recorded in CY 2019.” (01/26/26)
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/fear-fatigue-finances-americas-mood-222557372.html
- CA: Man arrested for allegedly driving truck in Iran protest rally
Source: SFGate
“A man accused of driving a U-Haul truck into a crowd in Los Angeles over the weekend as they demonstrated in support of the protests sweeping Iran was in police custody Monday and authorities said they are considering an assault charge. One man was hit by the truck but was not seriously injured, according to police. Two people declined treatment after being evaluated by paramedics, the fire department said.” (01/12/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/police-consider-assault-charge-after-u-haul-21290466.php
- A royal Paine
Source: Expression
by Matthew Harwood“Accounts differ, but sometime between late November and the middle of December 1774, a terribly sick man was carried off a ship in colonial Philadelphia. Riddled with typhus, the middle-aged Brit was too weak to walk after his long voyage from London. …. If the British had any idea of who this Thomas Pain would become — he wouldn’t add the ‘e’ until later — they may never have let him set sail to the New World to begin with. In little more than a year, this impoverished 37-year-old, who had known only heartache and failure in Britain, would find his voice as a successful editor and journalist in America’s largest city. And with his newfound purpose and confidence, he would write one of the great world-changing pieces of political propaganda ever published and help birth a free and independent United States of America.” (01/12/26)
- Libertarian Aspirations
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Laurence M Vance“Although it may have been true at one time that libertarians and conservatives were ‘uneasy cousins,’ such has not been the case for many years. Still, conservatives have no problem with using libertarian rhetoric to portray themselves as advocates of the Constitution, private property, the free market, individual liberty, federalism, limited government, and a free society when they only selectively believe these things.” (01/12/26)
https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/libertarian-aspirations/
- In Times Like This, Reframe American History
Source: JFK Facts
by Jefferson Morley“I was taught to understand American history as the history of political institutions, how ideas of individual liberty, free speech, separation of powers, and rule of law were manifested and contested. At a time when such institutions and ideas are powerless, endangered or defunct, we might find more clarity — and power — by understanding American history as a narrative of extra-constitutional political violence. If, as Judge Andrew Napolitano says, we now live under ‘a lawless presidency,’ it’s not the first time.” (01/12/26)
https://jfkfacts.substack.com/p/in-times-like-this-reframe-american
- Not All Predictions Are Impossible
Source: Pierre Lemieux
by Pierre Lemieux“Why don’t economics—the analysis of the social consequences of individual actions—and a knowledge of initial conditions suffice to make predictions? There are many reasons. Initial conditions cannot all be perfectly measured and are continuously disturbed, which generates divergent trajectories and creates new surprises as time goes on. Preferences (tastes and values) dwell in the head of each individual. Moral character may be opaque. Thanks to the law of large numbers, the average behavior of a group of individuals may be predictable (consider the law of demand: quantity demanded is an inverse function of price), but the actions of a specific individual are not. The longer the prediction horizon, the more fog in the oracle’s crystal ball. Not surprisingly, my own predictions have not all been glorious.” (01/12/26)
https://pierrelemieux.substack.com/p/not-all-predictions-are-impossible
- Absolute Immunity
Source: The Reframe
by AR Moxon“Alignment with supremacy is a vile choice. Raising the natural costs for those who make that choice by putting first things first.” (01/12/26)
- Thoughts on Balko’s Nightmare Happening
Source: ProSocial Libertarians
by Daniel Shapiro“Radley Balko’s article ‘Trump’s Immigration Nightmare: It Is Happening Here,’ may very well be the best article on Trump’s immigration policy. … We have four basic choices, as far as I can tell. #1: You can support these policies. If you do, I don’t see how you can call yourself a libertarian, a liberal, or anybody of any ideology — including conservatism — who claims to love liberty or support the ideals of the American Revolution. #2: You can oppose them but engage in what I call DTS — Downplaying Trump Syndrome. … #3: You can stick your head in the sand and not want to read about it or talk about it or be concerned with it. … #4: You can do something about it.” (01/12/26)
https://prosociallibertarians.substack.com/p/thoughts-on-balkos-nightmare-happening
- Trump will be sore when Cuba domino refuses to fall
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by William LeoGrande“Back in 2014, economist Pavel Vidal estimated that if Venezuelan oil were suddenly cut off, the Cuban economy would drop 7.7 percent. Today, when Venezuela provides far less than it did then and the price of oil is about half of what it was, the impact would be less. But Cuba’s GDP has already fallen about 15 percent since the COVID pandemic. Another 4 or 5 percent drop would exacerbate the vicious circle of declines in domestic production reducing export earnings, and widening the gap between what Cuba needs to import and what it can afford. Would that be enough to collapse the Cuban government? Trump certainly seems to think so. … Such confidence is not new. Washington officials have been predicting the imminent end of the Cuban government since 1959.” (01/12/26)
- Where Law Would Be King
Source: Law & Liberty
by Hans Eicholz“There are moments within traditions of thought when the pressure of events breaks apart ideas and ways of thinking that had subsisted for ages in relative harmony. These moments, often called tipping points, mark an instant when a particular notion suddenly takes prominence in public opinion due to its seeming conformity with the logic of events. Such was the publication of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, announced for sale by Robert Bell’s print shop in Philadelphia on January 9 and officially distributed on January 10, 250 years ago. Until that time, debate over the question of colonial rights to self-government, especially over the question of taxation, had been carried on within the framework and terms of the British or Imperial constitution.” (01/12/26)
- For Greenland, partnership over pugnacity
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff“In the midst of the Arctic winter, residents of Greenland are feeling the heat of global geopolitics. United States officials have stepped up insistence on the ‘need’ to take control of the mostly ice-covered island by force or by financial means. The declarations stress Greenland’s strategic location along Arctic sea routes – which both Russia and China are vying to use – as well as access to its estimated 1.5 million tons of rare earth mineral reserves. What’s at stake ‘is not just about rare earths – it is about the very idea of sovereignty in an age of resource rivalry’, Phar Kim Beng, of the Institute of International and ASEAN Studies, wrote in the Malay Mail. The U.S. logic is ‘rooted in energy security, future-proofing supply chains (especially minerals) and in the strategic denial of competitors,’ geopolitics analyst and bestselling author Tim Marshall wrote in The Times of London.” (01/12/25)
- The Trump Administration Owns Responsibility for Whatever Comes Next in Venezuela
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille“Regarding the 2002 invasion and occupation of Iraq, former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell warned then-President George W. Bush, ‘if you break it, you own it.’ He elaborated, ‘if we take out another country’s government by force, we instantly become the new government, responsible for governing the country and for the security of its people until we can turn all that over to a new, stable, and functioning government.’ … Owning the consequences was a risk as soon as the U.S. moved to depose Maduro. Whatever the outcome, it would have been set in motion by American actions. By supporting the continuation of Maduro’s regime under new management, the Trump administration is implicitly endorsing the censorship, fixed elections, corruption, and brutality that have kept that government in power since it took office under Hugo Chavez.” (01/12/26)
- Real Protests vs Fake Protests
Source: Town Hall
by Jeff Crouere“The protests in Iran have been building for weeks. Initially, the demonstrations were organized by merchants in December in response to a huge fall in the value of the Iranian Rial, their currency. Soon thereafter, the protests expanded to include students and workers and became a massive outpouring of citizens rejecting the country’s tyrannical Islamic regime. This theocracy has been ruling Iran with an iron grip since the overthrow of the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, in 1979. Since then, Iran has become the largest benefactor for the world’s deadliest terrorist organizations, such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. In response to the protests, the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, claimed that the government ‘would not back down.’ This statement is not surprising as the radical Islamic leaders of Iran have brutally responded to previous protests.” (01/12/25)
https://townhall.com/columnists/jeffcrouere/2026/01/12/real-protests-vs-fake-protests-n2669303
- Making Imperialism Great Again?
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
by Ron Paul“Following the invasion of Venezuela, there have been suggestions that President Trump will direct the US military to invade other countries as well. For example, Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Marco Rubio said, ‘if I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I’d be concerned.’ To no one’ s surprise, Senator Lindsey Graham was delighted by the possibility that Venezuela was just the first of many regime change wars President Trump will wage. … President Trump’s newfound love of regime change wars may be one reason why he is seeking to increase the military budget to 1.5 trillion dollars.” (0/12/26)
http://www.ronpaullibertyreport.com/archives/making-imperialism-great-again
- The Rise of the Prediction Markets
Source: The American Conservative
by Spencer Neale“These days, often your best bet to learn about what’s coming next, from hot-button political topics to shifts in cultural trends, is to check in with the round-the-clock traders on Polymarket and Kalshi. On the two foremost major prediction market websites, people bet real money nonstop on real-world events. Though both platforms have been operable for the better part of half a decade, it’s been the later stage of this year that has witnessed unmistakable growth in volume and name recognition for both. So much so that the two platforms are suddenly signing major deals with global tech and financial leaders amid their rise as the latest darlings of the internet these final months of 2025.” (01/12/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-rise-of-the-prediction-markets/
- Imperial Murder Machine In State Of Hyperactivity
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone“I hate this. I hate waiting for the next imperial act of war. I hate having to be aware of sunrise time in Iran so I can relax knowing they made it through another night without US airstrikes. I hate having to wonder which empire-targeted population is going to get hit next. The imperial murder machine has been so frenetically active these last few years. When I first started writing about the US empire it was the beginning of Trump’s first term, at a state of relative calm. There were mounting cold war tensions with Russia and the US-backed Saudi atrocities in Yemen, a faltering dirty war in Syria and a half-assed coup attempt in Venezuela, but these frenzied nonstop regime change ops and brazen power grabs weren’t so much a thing back then.” (01/12/25)
- Civilization’s Silent Killer
Source: Underthrow
by Max Borders“Developed-world consciousness is in demographic decline. If people in developed countries don’t have more babies, the developing world will inherit the earth. Does a dystopian future await?” (01/12/26)
https://underthrow.substack.com/p/civilizations-silent-killer
- In a reasonable world, Renee Good would still be alive
Source: Orange County Register
by Sal Rodriguez“In a normal world, the president and vice president would call for calm and note that proper investigations would take place. Matt Walsh would be unknown outside of crank religious right circles still fixated on “the gay agenda” or whatever. And Kristi Noem definitely would not be the head of Homeland Security and instead would have peaked with a term or two in the South Dakota House of Representatives. Alas, here we are. And it’s indeed because of the weird politics of today that Renee Good is dead.” (01/12/26)
- Five Years After GameStop: What the Squeeze Actually Changed
Source: The Daily Economy
by Peter C Earle“Meme-stock investment infusions rescued the company without redeeming its model. Did that borrowed time produce market discipline — or simply delay error correction?” (01/12/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/five-years-after-gamestop-what-the-squeeze-actually-changed/
- US Failed To Install the Pro-US Opposition in Venezuela
Source: Antiwar.com
by Ted Snider“The United States decapitated the Venezuelan regime and is dictating policy in Venezuela, running the country like an American colony. But the regime remains in place. Washington has been forced to exercise its dominance overtly through thuggish economic and military coercion rather than covertly by installing the pro-U.S. opposition. There are at least four reasons for this failure. The first is past failures. Many of them.” (01/12/26)
- SCOTUS needs to stop Louisiana grift against energy firms
Source: Fox News
by William Barr“The U.S. Supreme Court, by now all too familiar with lawfare, will consider a startling case on Monday, Jan. 12, chock-full of hard politicking and even the appearance of corruption. Small bayou towns and parishes in Louisiana, in partnership with plaintiffs’ firms, have filed dozens of lawsuits blaming American energy companies for coastal erosion stemming from energy production during World War II. The first of those cases reached trial this spring, with a jury in Plaquemines Parish returning a $750 million judgment against Chevron. The conduct of these cases recalls an old problem with a clear solution. States and localities have for decades weaponized their courts to derail lawful and legitimate federal objectives. … The answer is to remove these cases from Louisiana’s courts and adjudicate them in a fairer forum, namely federal court.” (01/12/25)
- Can a society be both efficient and free? Can we have both, or must we choose — and what is at stake if we cannot?
Source: Students For Liberty
by Riccardo Rossi“The tension that exists is between two classics: Adam Smith’s extent of the market, where specialization and exchange reinforce each other, because ‘the division of labor is limited by the extent of the market,’ and Alexis de Tocqueville’s art of association, where civic life survives because people learn to act together. Smith’s division of labor delivers prosperity through specialization; Tocqueville’s civic associations safeguard liberty through engagement. Yet they can pull in opposite directions: specialization isolates, and isolation weakens democracy. This is not abstract: it decides whether the West stays free or slides into a new despotism.” (01/12/26)
- Gracearchy with Jim Babka, episode 150
Source: Gracearchy with Jim Babka
“Zaprudering ICE After The Renee Good Shooting.” (01/12/26)
- Reason Roundtable, 01/12/26
Source: Reason
“End the Fed? Or Turn It Over to Trump?” (01/12/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/01/12/end-the-fed-or-turn-it-over-to-trump/
- The Mona Charen Show, 01/12/26
Source: The Bulwark
“Venezuela Was Not Liberated (w/ Quico Toro).” (01/12/26)
- Half the Answer, episode 58
Source: Liberal Currents
“The U.S. in Venezuela: The International Community and the Donroe Doctrine.” (01/12/26)
- Show-Me Institute Podcast, 01/12/26
Source: Show-Me Institute
“No Adult Left Behind, How Politics Hijacks Education Policy with Vlad Kogan.” (01/12/26)